Women Founding Differently: Ambition on Your Own Terms

A two-hour founder panel at Patch Twickenham, convened by coach Kate Rainford-Foakes after last year's edition sold out. Four founders talk through what the first steps actually cost them: Harriet Hastings of Biscuiteers, Steph Douglas of Don't Buy Her Flowers, Nadia Simonds of Lune & Wild, and Sally Lovett of Stretching the City, which grew out of a yoga side business into a workplace wellbeing consultancy. They cover pricing and getting to a viable business, when to hire or ask for help, trade-offs and boundaries, and changing direction when a business stops fitting your life. Format is a 45-minute panel and quick-fire Q&A, then small-group discussion, then coffee. 10:00 to 12:00. Step-free access from Arragon Road; children welcome. Why go: four people who have actually built the thing, talking about money and mistakes rather than vision. Best for anyone at or before the first-hire stage, and for founders taking the consumer-brand route rather than the venture one.